


My Name is Earl, Season 3, Episode 3, The Gangs of Camden County

by TheSomewhatRamblingReviewer



Category: My Name is Earl
Genre: Analysis, Episode Review, Episode: s03e03 The Gangs of Camden County, Meta, Nonfiction, Season/Series 03, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-27
Updated: 2018-09-27
Packaged: 2019-07-18 09:01:36
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,570
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16115159
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheSomewhatRamblingReviewer/pseuds/TheSomewhatRamblingReviewer
Summary: Warning: Contains spoilers for the episode and the rest of the series. Complete.





	My Name is Earl, Season 3, Episode 3, The Gangs of Camden County

Open to Earl trying to clip his toenails. The only problem is the clippers are attached to the belt of a guard, and thus, they keep snapping back.

Realising he was supposed to take Earl to the warden at a certain time, the guard asks if Earl will pretend to have resisted. Earl agrees, and to repay this kindness, the guard maces him.

Meanwhile, Randy misses Earl so badly he tries to steal a car. Unfortunately, people couldn’t care less. After three days, he decides to try a different idea.

This idea involves finding a police officer who looks to be on a coffee break and confessing to being a serial killer. When Randy’s informed said serial killer has already confessed, he tries to take credit for the graffiti behind the police officer.

However, the officer is impressed with Randy’s supposed skill. He offers to pay for Randy to do a mural in the officer’s baby’s room. Heh.

Frustrated, Randy slaps the officer.

In the next scene, Joy has come to the jail, and she lectures Randy. Despite her unhappiness, she will bail him out seeing as how his brother is in prison for a crime she committed. Crabman tries to point out the American justice system’s racist underpinnings, and of course, Randy fails to understand.

Meanwhile, in prison, Earl has a VO about the warden’s incompetence. His wife is governor, and she keeps getting him prestigious jobs he is utterly unqualified for.

There’s a tacky, tasteless, somewhat cruel 9/11 joke. It makes no point and simply relies on the fact 9/11 happened to support itself.

Moving on, the warden needs help settling a feud between two gangs.

Aren’t there people hired by prisons due to their specialised knowledge of gang violence? Mediators? Counselors? Profilers? People with really big nightsticks? Anyone other than a non-violent prisoner who, let’s face it, is something of a hick?

The warden tried locking them in solitary together for a month, but this didn’t work.

I’m actually surprised. From what I’ve read about gangs, whether they killed one another or not, I’d have thought them being out of commission for so long would have resulted in both gangs being taken over by someone within their ranks.

Earl agrees to stop the fighting in exchange for another reduction-in-sentence coupon.

Outside, Earl tries to figure out the problem. The black gang loses their ball to the Latin gang, and there’s a subtle look between Jamal, leader of the former, and Hector, leader of the latter. Turning, Hector gives the ball to his gang to play with, and Jamal leads the attack.

This gives Earl the brilliant idea of bringing in more balls.

Couldn’t the warden just have different people out in the yard at different times?

I will give the show credit for having Great Balls of Fire playing during the fight. Hee.

Two balls are brought in, but the black gang snatches both. This leads to another fight.

So, Earl decides more balls need to be brought in. This causes a dodge ball fight.

Hey, this seems significantly less dangerous in comparison to them physically beating the stuffing out of each other. Even the severely non-athletic can usually manage to either duck or catch during a game.

As Earl reflects on this failure, his guard buddy informs him his ex-wife and current brother are here to see him.

Inside, the two bicker until Earl takes a book from every afterschool special ever and insists they say something nice about one another. Randy is appreciative of Joy’s breasts, and Joy has noticed Randy is doing a better job of flushing the toilet when he’s done using it. This gives Earl an idea, and he leaves.

Randy witnesses him sharing the sweets Randy bought with his guard buddy.

When the warden is out to see a movie, Earl has Jamal and Hector in the office. Trying to make them say something nice about one another, he realises they won’t with the camera recording them. As he goes to unplug it, the two begin snogging.

I don’t think they meant to be caught, but this still seems rather risky on their parts.

Trying to be cool about this, Earl asks what’s going on. It’s a shame he never contacts Kenny during this episode.

Instead of killing or, at least, severely beating him up, they explain they fell in love during solitary and start fights whenever the desire for physical touch gets to be too much.

They don’t even threaten to kill and/or beat him up if he tells anyone. Jeez. This shows remarkable maturity and moral uprightness on their parts.

“So, you make your gangs fight just so you can have a few seconds together?”

I never said they were remarkably mature and morally upright, just these particular set of non-actions on their parts.

“Well, in fairness, they also enjoy fighting,” Hector chimes in.

Earl thinks they should come out and be prison role models. Jamal wants to come out, but Hector refuses.

Jamal, however, needs more than an occasional punch in the throat. Declaring them over, he leaves.

Earl’s more concerned about getting the fighting to stop than the relationship that just imploded in front of him.

Meanwhile, Jamal and his gang are gathering weapons. One guy is disappointed to have gotten a spoon, again.

I can only hope the warden will be competent in this one instance and never let this guy watch Oz.

Speaking of the warden, he is displeased, and Earl promises to fix things.

In Joy’s trailer, Randy is studying to be a prison guard, and Crabman objects on the valid grounds of: Randy is a complete dolt with no survival instincts or proper reflexes. Joy, however, is happy to help Randy study.

Back in prison, Earl decides he needs to fix the romance to stop the gang fighting. Or he could just tell the warden what’s going on. The fact he doesn’t shows he’s either a much smarter or much kinder person than I am.

Earl tries to make Hector horny enough he makes a move on Jamal. There’s a funny montage of his various antics. They’re somewhat successful but not enough.

After the montage, we see Randy beginning to take his test. When he’s done, he tells the instructor he’d like to play the race card.

Back in prison, Hector confesses to Earl he misses Jamal. Earl suggests Hector go talk to him.

Hector points out the fact going over to where Jamal’s gang is sitting will result in him being killed. Then, he excitedly gets the idea of sending Earl. He digs out a pen and paper so that he can write down what he wants Earl to say.

Prisoners are allowed to carry around pens? From what I’ve seen, pens can make pretty effective weapons.

Earl tells Jamal Hector wants him back, and Jamal says Hector broke his heart.

Back to Hector, he’s heartbroken over Jamal’s refusal. Earl tries to convince him some people just aren’t meant to be together, and this is no reason for the gangs to continue fighting. Trying to keep from crying, Hector says, “Tell Jamal I’ll always love him.”

Then, he tries to kill himself via the electric gate.

In response, Jamal grabs one of the sticks in the garden (these also seem like they’d make great weapons) and runs to try to get Hector off the fence by beating him on the back.

Wouldn’t sliding the pole between the body and the fence, grabbing both ends, and pulling work better? I honestly don’t know. My reaction to a loved one ending up in a situation like this would probably be to either scream for help, run to find help, or scream as I’m running to find help.

Eventually, he gets Hector off the fence, and the black gang cheers at what they assume is their leader beating up a suicidal man. Jamal promises Hector they’ll find a way to make things work.

Where is Hector’s gang? Wouldn’t they have some reaction other than standing around to their leader’s attempt at suicide?

And why is there a man with a paper bag over his head near Jamal’s gang?

Later, Earl convinces the warden to let Jamal and Hector have an unsupervised hour alone in his office once a month.

Wouldn’t they be able to use the office to find ways to cause trouble? I don’t blame Earl for not taking this detail into consideration, but this is just proof the warden really needs to be given a job that doesn’t involve him being in anyway responsible for other human beings.

Outside, the black gang gives the Latin gang the ball back with no issue.

The episodes ends with Randy in a security uniform sitting down next to Earl.

I interpreted this episode as making subtle jabs at classism and anti-intellectualism. The warden charged with keeping society safe is an adult child who got his job via nepotism. Randy was able to get a job where his responsibility is to keep society safe by virtue of being the best out of what must have been an already terrible selection. Former minor criminal Earl and former assassin Crabman were the only ones who both showed common sense, even if Earl’s somewhat missed the mark at times. In addition, he, Crabman, Jamal, and Hector were the only ones who showed genuine compassion for others.

Fin.


End file.
